Murmuring

If you open up your word processing software and start typing, chances are you're looking at a typeface called Times New Roman. It's so common that we take it for granted, but this super-typeface has an interesting origin story.

It all began with a complaint. In the 1920s, the esteemed type designer Stanley Morison criticized London's newspaper The Times for being out-of-touch with modern typographical trends. So The Times replied to his complaint by asking him to create something better. Morison took up the challenge. He enlisted the help of expert draftsman Victor Lardent and began conceptualizing a new typeface with two goals in mind: efficiency and readability. Morison wanted any printing in his typeface to be economical, a necessity in the newspaper business.

In 1926, The Times tested an early version of Morison's new type. After test upon test and proof upon proof, the final design was approved, and "The Times New Roman" was born. In 1932, The Times specifically noted that their new typeface was not intended for books. But at 82 years old, Times New Roman is still going strong, proving that sometimes there's something better than criticism: become part of the solution instead.

Possible Preaching Angles: Be careful what you criticize. Be careful when you complain and murmur. God may ask you to be part of the solution to the problem you criticize.

Sally Smith, the president and former CEO of the wildly popular Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant chain, was asked, "What are some things you've learned about leading and managing people?" She replied:

I'm always seeking feedback. My leadership team does a performance review on me each year for the board. It's anonymous. They can talk about my management style or things I need to work on. If you want to continue growing, you have to be willing to say, "What do I need to get better at?"

That's how I learn. That's how I get better. Getting feedback [as a leader] is really tough. You may be able to find a couple of people in the company who will give you honest feedback. Before we even did performance reviews, I used to go to [one of our key leaders] and say, "I want you to write down four things that I need to work on next year."

A growing body of research has tied an attitude of gratitude with a number of positive emotional and physical health benefits. An article in The Wall Street Journal summarized the research:

Adults who frequently feel grateful have more energy, more optimism, more social connections and more happiness than those who do not, according to studies conducted over the past decade. They're also less likely to be depressed, envious, greedy, or alcoholics. They earn more money, sleep more soundly, exercise more regularly, and have greater resistance to viral infections.

Now, researchers are finding that gratitude brings similar benefits in children and adolescents. [Studies also show that] kids who feel and act grateful tend to be less materialistic, get better grades, set higher goals, complain of fewer headaches and stomach aches, and feel more satisfied with their friends, families, and schools than those who don't.

The researchers concluded, "A lot of these findings are things we learned in kindergarten or our grandmothers told us, but now we have scientific evidence to prove them …. The key is not to leave it on the Thanksgiving table."

Editor's Note: The video for this illustration contains some objectionable words. This edited transcript has deleted or revised any offensive content.

The sometimes vulgar comedian known as Louis C.K. did a routine that starts with the line, "Everything's amazing right now, but nobody's happy." It obviously struck a chord with people—as of November 2011 the clip had over 4 million views. Here's what he said to poke fun at our ingratitude and impatience:

In my lifetime the changes in the world have been incredible. When I was a kid, we had a rotary phone. We had a phone you had to stand next to, and you had to dial it. Do you realize how primitive that was? You were making sparks. And you would actually hate people who had zeroes in their number because it was more [work]. And then if you called and they weren't home, the phone would just ring lonely by itself.

And then if you wanted money you had to go in the bank—and it was open for like three hours, and you'd stand in line and write a check. And then if you ran out of money, you'd just say, "Well, I just can't do any more things now."

Now we live in an amazing, amazing world, and it's wasted on [a] generation of spoiled [people] that don't care. This is what people are like now: they've got their phone, and they go, "Ugh, it won't [work fast enough]."

Give it a second! It's going to space. Will you give it a second to get back from space? Is the speed of light too slow for you?

I was on an airplane, and there was high-speed internet …. And I'm sitting on the plane, and they say, "Open up your laptop, you can go on the internet." It's fast … it's amazing …. And then the thing breaks down. They apologize, "The internet's not working." And the guy next to me says, "[O, great] this [stinks]." Like how quickly the world owes him something he knew existed only ten seconds ago.

People come back from flights, and they tell you their story, and it's a horror story …. [They say], "It was the worst day of my life. First of all, we didn't board for twenty minutes. And then we get on the plane, and they made us sit there on the runway for forty minutes." [And I say,] "O, really, and what happened next? Did you fly in the air, incredibly, like a bird? Did you partake in the miracle of human flight?" Everybody on every plane should be constantly [screaming], "WOW!" You're flying. You're sitting in a chair in the sky!

Here's the thing: People say there are "delays" on flights. Delays, really? New York to California in five hours! It used to take thirty years to do that, and a bunch of you would die on the way.

In her book The Gift of Thanks, Margaret Visser uses three concrete images to convey the power of gratitude—gratitude as soil, lubricant, and glue. She writes:

[Soil] refers to the disposition of the person to be grateful, and his freedom to choose not to be. He is able to "cultivate" in himself a grateful disposition …. An ungrateful disposition, by contrast, is hard and dry, not easily moved by kindness, unwilling to be kind in return …. In European languages people often talk of poor soil as "ungrateful."

Gratitude is [also] a social "lubricant" …. It makes things move smoothly; after all, giving and giving back are movements back and forth …. When there is no gratitude, there is no meaningful movement; [relationships] become rocky, painful, coldly indifferent, unpleasant, and finally break off altogether. The social "machinery" grinds to a halt.

[Finally] … gratitude is "glue." The image points again to the social cohesion that gratitude supplies. Modern society is experienced as fragmented, in danger of flying apart … Gratitude is "a kind of plastic filler," "an all-purpose moral cement," a sort of magic paste that is amazingly malleable, squeezing itself into the cracks and then solidifying and strengthening the social structure.

I miss being around people that don't complain. I'm in the drama business, and there are a lot of dramatic people that seem to be not very happy with where they are.

—U.S. actor Ashton Kutcher, when asked what he missed about growing up and living in the Midwest (Iowa)

Source:

"10 Questions for Ashton Kutcher," TIME magazine (8-13-09)

Over coffee: "All I'm trying to say is that certain people might think that 12:15 is a little late to be getting out of church, that a pastor doesn't need three weeks of vacation, that your office is offensive, that a guy my age doesn't need a guy your age telling me how to raise my kids, and that if it weren't for your crazy Third World projects we could have repaved our parking lot by now. I'm not saying those are MY opinions, or course. I just thought you should know what others might be thinking."

The best way to handle criticism is to respond quickly, directly, and sensitively.

Never excuse. Never explain. Never complain.

God must think it's okay for us to gripe--there are more lament psalms than any other kind in the Old Testament.

A heavy wagon was being dragged along a country lane by a team of oxen. The axles groaned and creaked terribly, when the oxen turning around thus addressed the wheels, "Hey there, why do you make so much noise? We bear all the labor, and we--not you--ought to cry out!" Those complain first in our churches who have the least to do. The gift of grumbling is largely dispensed among those who have no other talents, or who keep what they have wrapped up in a napkin.

It is so much easier to fix blame than to fix problems.

Flippancy is the best [kind of joke] of all. In the first place it is very economical. Only a clever human can make a real joke about virtue, or indeed about anything else; any of them can be trained to talk as if virtue were funny. ...

If prolonged, the habit of flippancy builds up around a man the finest armourplating against the Enemy [God] that I know, and it is quite free from the dangers inherent in the other sources of laughter. It is a thousand miles away from joy: it deadens, instead of sharpening, the intellect; and it excites no affection between those who practice it.

-- Your affectionate uncle SCREWTAPE

"Officially, the results of the vote are forty 'yes,' seven 'no,' and one 'over my dead body.' "

Grumblers seldom take their issue directly to those who can resolve it.